Starbucks hit by 'cascade of negativity' after ordering staff to talk racism with customers

[WestVirginiaRebel]

UK Daily Mail:

Twitter has ruthlessly mocked Starbucks campaign for the company's new anti-racism campaign in which baristas talk to customers about race issues while serving their coffee.

 

One user tweeted, 'I don't have time to explain 400 years of oppression to you & still make my train', while another pointed out, 'y'all realize there are no coloured hands in the press photos right'.

 

A third speculated, 'maybe Starbucks actually wanted to get people of all races & ethnicities to join hands and make fun'.

 

Corey duBrowa, the company's Senior Vice President of Global Communications, was forced to delete his Twitter account, before re-activating it the next day.

 

'Last night I felt personally attacked in a cascade of negativity,' he said in a post on Medium. 'I got overwhelmed by the volume and tenor of the discussion, and I reacted'.

 

Staff at the 4,700 cafés across America now have the option to write 'RaceTogether' on cardboard cups, which is the slogan of a Starbucks anti-racism campaign.

 

It was hoped that customers who encounter the slogan on their coffee cup would be inspired to discuss the deeper issues affecting America, in an attempt to 'create a more empathetic and inclusive society - one conversation at a time'.

 

But many customers found the campaign 'patronizing'.

 

'#RaceTogether is what happens when a 1%-er without any actual anti-racist education or training has a mid-life "white man's burden" crisis,' one user tweeted.

________

 

Rich white hipster feels guilty, orders other white hipsters to do same...

[clearvision]

If anything this is a HUGE free advertising bonanza. On all the radio local talk shows today. Hours of free discussion of Starbucks. I guess their new motto is I'll take it black....?

[Valin]

If anything this is a HUGE free advertising bonanza. On all the radio local talk shows today. Hours of free discussion of Starbucks. I guess their new motto is I'll take it black....?

 

And Here's one more!

 

Time for a National Conversation About Why Starbucks Coffee Is Disgusting

David P. Goldman

March 19th, 2015

 

It’s time to have a national conversation about one of the most sensitive, controversial issues in American culture, the stain on our national honor: Coffee. * American coffee is now and always has been revolting, and it behooves us to look deep into our souls to understand why we overpay for muck at Starbucks. There’s a sucker born every minute, and he’s almost certain to be American. We are boosters, enthusiasts, tent-evangelicals, fly-by-nighters, snake-oil salesmen and honky-tonkers as a people, and get swindled every time. Now, to tell a man that his coffee is disgusting is just a tad less offensive than explaining that his wife really is a shaved chimpanzee. Next to one’s spouse, nothing gets under our skin and into our soul like coffee. It’s the one thing we ingest daily for which there is no substitute, and without which the day hardly seems worth enduring. To get snookered over coffee is a sad thing to admit, but we have to start our great national dialogue somewhere. Back in 2003 I argued in dead seriousness that lousy coffee was a characteristic flaw of American culture:

 

(Snip)

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Go To England and try to drink a cup of coffee!

[Valin]

Starbucks ends ‘Race Together’ coffee cup campaign with push for forums and new stores

Nicole Hensley
Sunday, March 22, 2015

 

That didn’t take long.

 

Starbucks went from pulling the shots on its controversial “Race Together” campaign to pulling the plug on it after only a week.

 

Coffee mogul Howard Schultz announced the global corporation’s plan to take its baristas out of the race and diversity campaign that included writing “Race Together” on cups, a decision that was apparently part of its plan from the beginning, a memo stated.

 

(Snip)

 

The company has no intention of stopping its initiative, as it announced forums to come and the hiring of 10,000 employees from diverse backgrounds to man new coffee shops in disadvantaged urban communities.

 

The marketing campaign’s backlash included sarcastic tweets revolving around the #RaceTogether hashtag, but the corporation’s intentions did earn support from one community leader in St. Louis, Missouri. Alderman Antonio French, who has remained vocal on ending racial tensions since the shooting death of Michael Brown, applauded the move.

 

(Snip)

[nickydog]

Too late, Howard. I'm never going into a Starbucks ever again.

 

And if your company is the only choice at the airport I will DO WITHOUT! (And that's saying something.)

[SrWoodchuck]

 

Via iOTWReport